


extreme imprinting

by deuteroscopies



Series: the prophet and the king [6]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Branding, Demonic Possession, M/M, Magical Bond, Magical Tattoos, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-25
Updated: 2019-11-25
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:42:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21555685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deuteroscopies/pseuds/deuteroscopies
Summary: Freddie uses his fairy dust to help ease the painful result of Ephram having the demon-warding sigil magically branded into his hip. Things don't go exactly as they'd hoped.(At this point, relationship-wise, Freddie and Ephram are also both involved with a human woman named Ruby.)
Relationships: Freddie Watts/Ephram Pettaline
Series: the prophet and the king [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1551673
Kudos: 1





	extreme imprinting

**Author's Note:**

> > Freddie Watts = Tom Hardy FC, Ephram Pettaline = Boyd Holbrook FC. These stories are set in the supernatural town of Soapberry Springs, in the Pacific Northwest. Freddie is a fairy con man from London, with cobalt-coloured dragonfly wings and silver fairy dust, who has a Japanese Chin familiar named Oliver; Ephram is a witch from impoverished East Kentucky who shares his body with a demon called Anaxis and has green magic of his own.
>> 
>> [the prophet and the king 'verse tumblr](http://theprophetandtheking.tumblr.com/)  
> 

[FREDDIE TXT] Ephram love, text me as soon as you get this.  
  
Ephram blinked groggily at his phone from where he was lying splayed on a couch in Faye’s spell room. It rang the chime he’d chosen for Freddie – something that sounded to Ephram’s untrained ear like fairy ballroom music – and jittered against the floorboards. Flopping over to pick up his phone, aching hip poised carefully so it didn’t rub against anything, Ephram lay on his stomach and wrote back.  
  
[EPHRAM TXT] Hi babe. Just got magic tatted. All primed and ready for the branding iron to seal it.  
  
[TXT] What’s upp?  
  
When his phone buzzed, Freddie’s eyes shot open and he snatched it up off the bedside table, not wanting it to wake Ruby. They’d had a long night, and he wanted her to sleep for as long as she could. But when he saw that it was Ephram, he closed his eyes again in relief, holding the phone to his chest for a second before taking a deep breath and texting back.  
  
[TXT] You did? That’s wonderful, love. How are you? Do you need anything? I would have been there, you know.  
  
[TXT] Are you at Faye’s then?  
  
[EPHRAM TXT] Yeah. Getting myself together enough before I move. You need me to come somewhere?  
  
Ephram was glad that he’d managed not to worry Freddie with his message. His fairy was intensely clever at ferreting out somebody’s true meaning, so in a way that in itself was a little concerning. There must be something going on at Freddie’s end, too, so he was doubly glad. Especially since Faye was moving quietly around the room with her baby daughter, disposing of spell elements with the proper rituals and keeping an eagle eye on him while she did it. Having Faye worried about him was more than enough right now.  
  
[TXT] It’s okay, I wouldn’t have wanted you to get caught in no magical reverb, it was some pretty fuckin strong stuff. Best it was just us witches.  
  
Especially considering the demonic essence that had been pushed out into the spell room, the effluvium buildup that Anaxis had left the times it had been in control. Especially considering the sound that the goldfire brand had made as it sizzled through the meat of him and cracked bone so loud it was like cannonshot. It was bad enough his beloved fairy would have to be there for the iron brand, much less the mingled beauty and brutality of the magic version.  
  
Freddie frowned at his phone, not liking the connotation of ‘fuckin strong stuff’. If Ephram thought it was best that he hadn’t been there, if he’d thought Freddie needed shielding from it, then it must have been a dangerous ordeal; and Freddie was struck suddenly by the thought that he was going to need to sit down with his very selfless lover and explain how very important it was to him that Ephram not put himself in harm’s way.  
  
[TXT] If you say so, sweetheart. I’ll be there for the brand though. I’m not taking no for an answer.  
  
[TXT] And yes, actually, I do need you to come somewhere. Because if you let yourself be magically branded, then you need to be close so I can take care of you.  
  
[TXT] Can you come to the hotel? Right now? 

The idea of watching his witch be branded was horrifying to Freddie on a number of levels - but the alternative was far, far worse. The alternative couldn’t be allowed to happen ever again. Ephram couldn’t just be left to shoulder all that pain and responsibility with no reprieve.  
  
[EPHRAM TXT] No no I REALLY want you there for the iron brand I mean I know it’s gonna be hard for you to watch but I need you for it. Especially since I kinda need all the resolve I can get.  
  
The thought of putting another brand on top of the one that was still seeping blood and gold was not one Ephram wanted to dwell on. He’d had enough nerve to endure the goldfire one, but having the wound site subjected to even more pain put him in mind of some of the torture he’d gone through in prison. And that was a surefire way to make him want to rabbit.

[FREDDIE TXT] I can’t even tell you how brave I think you are for doing this; so whatever you need, I'm here to provide. I love you very much, Ephram.

[TXT] I’ll see you soon, love. Don’t hurt yourself making your way over, and text me when you get here. I’ll come out to meet you.

Sitting up, Ephram swung his feet down and experimentally tried to get up to standing. Pain flared through his hip as if he’d been impaled on a meat hook and he froze, waiting till it subsided to a more manageable agony before trying again. This time he managed to stay swaying upright, although the motion and his groaning made Faye look over, alarmed. “Darlin’, you sure you can move yet?” she asked, but Ephram waved a hand at her.  
  
“S’okay, I’m good. Enough to move, anyhow.” Ephram hobbled forward a few steps and then straightened himself to prove to Faye that he was well enough to walk. She still gave him that look she’d been giving him recently, a sort of peering look as though she wanted to ask something but wouldn’t. He’d have to address that, Ephram thought, but that could wait. He needed to get to Freddie.  
  
\---  
  
Despite everything, the pain that had become a constant flaring throb shot through with sharp slicing pains and the demon clawing desperately around in his guts looking for a way to weasel back to the fore, Ephram felt hopeful. This was the furthest he’d ever gotten when it came to dealing with Anaxis, and he wasn’t going to be alone for it.  
  
Ephram was so enraptured with this idea that he nearly disobeyed Freddie’s last text, sitting in his old blue pickup truck at a green light lost in his own thoughts. Fortunately the car behind him settled for leaning on its horn instead of any more dramatic action, and Ephram kicked back into focus, driving straight to the hotel. He checked his wound once he’d parked; it was still bleeding, red and gold soaking through his jeans. Sticking the denim to his skin, Ephram realized as he got out of his truck with a wince and took out his phone.  
  
[TXT] I’m here, come sign for me, COD  
  
Freddie smiled, in spite of everything, as Ephram joked about having delivered himself to the hotel, then eased himself gently out of bed, bending down to press a kiss to Ruby’s temple before texting back.  
  
[TXT] Have I mentioned lately that I find the fact that you can joke about these things utterly adorable? Because I do. On my way down, sweetheart.  
  
“Keep an eye on her, yeah?” he said to Ollie, who hopped up on the bed and laid down beside Ruby, eyes on the door like a sentry, in answer. Freddie smiled, and ruffling the little dog’s ears, before hurrying down to meet Ephram.  
  
He was a little unprepared for the pallor, and the blood, however, when he saw him. “Jesus flaming Christ,” he breathed, rushing up and pressing a kiss to Ephram’s lips, before snaking an arm around him to help his poor fragile-looking witch inside. “Darling, are you alright? Is it supposed to bleed like this? I thought a brand - even a magical one - would cauterize…”  
  
“You need a bed, love. Come on.”  
  
“Mmmph,” Ephram made a sound of mingled pain and relief when Freddie took most of his weight, making it easier for Ephram to limp along with him to the elevator. “Anaxis is mighty riled up bout this whole procedure. With the demon still swirlin’ round inside me it’s doing a number on how fast I can heal. It’ll…” Ephram rested his head against Freddie’s as they worked their way down the hall to the empty room, his limp growing more pronounced and breathing more laboured. “You’ll understand when you see it. What the magic brand was like.”  
  
The bed was as welcome a sight as Freddie, and Ephram gave his fairy a grateful kiss when he was settled down on it. The movement had already uncaked the stiffening fabric of his jeans from the wound, so he undid his zip and pushed down that side of them to expose his left hip. “It went right through me,” Ephram said, more quietly, not looking down at the wound but keeping it exposed so Freddie could take a look at it. “Through bone and out t’other side. I ain’t seen the backside but I reckon it’s more of the same.”  
  
The brand looked as if it had been cut into him, some wicked blade shaped into the circled sigil and then pressed into Ephram’s flesh so it sliced through like butter. It was bloody and swollen and flecked with gold that shimmered even slightly above Ephram’s skin, unsettlingly pretty for such a vicious mark. Ephram ran his fingertips up and down Freddie’s arm, watching him, watching his reactions. “No blood in bone,” he murmured, his Appalachian accent drawing out thicker. “My momma used to say that, said she dreamed it written in stars in the trees when I was born. Could be this is what it meant, maybe. You think so, Freddie?”  
  
Freddie just stared at the brand for a moment, vaguely horrified by the brutality of it, and the obvious pain it must have caused - and was still inflicting - on Ephram; the golden shine of it only serving to accentuate the fairy’s nausea.  
  
And this was only the first one.  
  
Freddie reached out as if to touch it, then pulled his hand back, looking up into Ephram’s eyes again. “I don’t know, love,” he said softly, answering his witch as honestly as he could, “Maybe. Fairies are ill-equipped to understand prophecies though. We’re far too impatient. Too eager for instant gratification.” Brushing Ephram’s messy blond hair away from his face, he smiled gently. “I think in this case your judgment is the one to trust.”  
  
“But can you sit up a little for me?” he asked, a moment later, “We need to get these clothes off you, and I’m going to call down to the front desk and have a first aid kit sent up. You can’t just be left to bleed, darling.”  
  
Freddie was quiet as he stripped Ephram down, as carefully and efficiently as he could, his wheels turning, then murmured, “I could help though; if you’ll let me. Beyond just the bandages.”  
  
The fairy rubbed Ephram’s thigh absently as he carried on, “I could heal you, love - maybe not entirely, but a damn sight farther than biology will take you for a while. Provided you don’t think my magic will disrupt what you and Faye have done, of course.”  
  
“I mean, you must be in agony, sweetheart…” Freddie breathed, his eyes moving to the weeping wound once more, lingering, and then sweeping back to meet Ephram’s again. “Do you think it’s safe for me to try?”  
  
Ephram turned his face into Freddie’s touch, reflecting his gentle smile. “When this is all over I should call and tell momma bout all this,” he said drowsily, with that particular mugginess that came with pain and endorphins. “I need to tell her bout you, honeypie. Send her a picture. She’ll be so fuckin impressed with how handsome you are.”  
  
He didn’t protest when Freddie asked him to sit up and get his clothes off, moving his limbs to assist with the fairy’s mindful process of peeling him bare. “I figured the iron brand might could cauterize it, when we put that one over top,” Ephram mused, touching Freddie here and there as his lover moved as if he didn’t want to lose physical contact for more than a few seconds.  
  
When Freddie offered to heal Ephram using his fairy dust, Ephram had to stop himself from bawling YES as loud and fast as he could -- despite the fact that Freddie did bring up a good point about magic-on-magic and how it might react. “I ain’t gonna tell no fibs, it’s getting powerful hard to handle the pain, Freddie.” He spoke in a sigh, finally admitting just how much he was hurting. It wasn’t as if Ephram had intended to keep it from Freddie, it was more that he was awkward about bringing it up. He had more experience in being close-mouthed and carrying on, just like all his kin. “If you could … yeah, baby, I want you to try. Fuck, now that you put the idea in my head, I’m plum chompin’ at the bit for you to work your magic.” Ephram gave a wan, watery smile, leaning back on the bed to raise his hip.  
  
Freddie let out a soft little laugh when Ephram said his mother would be impressed with him, sliding his hand over to caress Ephram’s cheek gently; something warm stirring in his chest at the idea of being important enough to be shown to someone’s mother. “Then I’ll have to make sure you get my good side,” he murmured.  
  
He winced when he realized Ephram intended to put the iron brand directly over the magical one, though - the idea of applying any more pain to that already abused area making his stomach churn. But he didn’t argue. Ephram knew best. And once his witch was naked, and settled back as comfortably as could be achieved, given his current state, Freddie sighed with relief when his offer was accepted. “Oh thank Christ,” he breathed, “I couldn’t bear just sitting here watching you suffer, love. It’s killing me.”  
  
He took Ephram’s hand and kissed it, meeting his eyes one more time. “I’ll warn you, darling; this might hurt a bit at first, but it won’t last long. Just…” Freddie flashed Ephram a worried look, “…just tell me if anything feels off, alright? And I’ll stop. I’ll stop the instant you tell me to…”  
  
The fairy took a deep breath and closed his eyes, pressing his hand to the site of the wound; covering it with his palm and concentrating with everything he had on manifesting his dust, and what he wanted it to do. Freddie poured all the love he felt for Ephram - which was deep, and strong, and elemental - into the complexity of healing him while leaving the brand itself undisturbed.  
  
Leeching out his pain, while leaving the scar to bear witness.  
  
“You don’t got no bad side, punkin,” Ephram said once he was settled. “I could take a picture of the back of your pretty head and that would be enough.” He blinked slowly as Freddie took his hand, savouring the feel of his fairy’s strong, clever fingers massaging between the bones as he kissed it. “I woulda been okay,” Ephram soothed him, voice taking on a wooing sound as if he was talking to frightened livestock. Despite the tone, his eyes were sharp, taking in every detail of Freddie’s expressions. They were so raw that it almost hurt to watch, but Ephram couldn’t stop; that openness, the worry, they lanced straight through to Ephram’s heart.  
  
“You’re a goddamn treasure, you know that?” Reaching out, Ephram cupped Freddie’s elbow, tickling his skin as he assured him, “Believe me, I ain’t the sorter feller who would choose to be in pain for some kinda, I dunno, macho or dramatic thing. And if my beautiful Freddie can help out in that direction then hell, it would take a stronger man than me to refuse.”  
  
He didn’t think there would be any issues, not with Freddie – maybe it was foolish and romantic, but Ephram couldn’t imagine their magic not being compatible – but he nodded solemnly to Freddie’s warning. His strong hand felt good, but then the dust started to swirl in, and Ephram dug his fingers into the sheets as it spread out. “Ohgod,” he gasped, no doubt in the sound that what he was feeling was good, that there was no pain. “Freddie, it’s ... fuck, it’s _incredible_. Keep going.”  
  
His own goldfire magic was rising up inside him along the incisions, reaching up to meet Freddie’s as it sank down through the same lines. It did hurt, a little, but that pain was overcome by the pleasure.  
  
Freddie let out the breath he hadn’t been aware he’d been holding when he heard Ephram gasp, recognizing the tone - the ragged, throaty warmth of it - from their lovemaking. He’d had it poured softly into his ears, breathed against his lips, and hummed against his skin. He’d know it anywhere. It belonged to him now, the same as Ephram did.  
  
It meant pleasure.  
  
And it meant that this was working.  
  
Working better and faster than Freddie could have hoped for, actually. There was a strength here, a force, as his magic kissed Ephram’s; all of it meeting and melding, flowing together into something new, and something very old, all at once. An unexpected - though, maybe, if Freddie was honest, not _really_ unexpected at all - _something_ , that moved between them.  
  
And it was beautiful.  
  
The fairy watched as waves of pleasure washed over Ephram, one by one; contorting his lovely face into expressions that Freddie had never been able to linger over before - his own joy always too much to be denied. And now that he could, he committed them all to memory; aware that love might make an artist of him yet.  
  
“That’s it, love,” Freddie breathed, power trembling up his arm from their point of connection; warm, and stable, and radiant, “I’ve got you…”  
  
“Jesus Lord,” Ephram panted. The feeling wasn’t exactly sexual, although it was unmistakably _sensual_ , and he hung onto Freddie’s arm as if the fairy might move away before Ephram had gotten his fill. “This is good,” Ephram said, lifting his head to look at where Freddie had his hand firmly pressed down, the tiny glimmering leaps of green-and-gold light through his fingers like dolphins at play. “Freddie, honey, it’s so good, it’s perfect, I can feel it running on down into every place that got sliced open, right into the fuckin’ marrow of my bones.”  
  
He dropped his head back down against the mattress with a tight moan as more and more pain leeched out, starting to be replaced with the shimmery fairy dust magic, silting into all the cracks and slits. “I can’t even…” Ephram said, eyes open and staring, glassy, “…the way it feels, Freddie. Getting right down deep into me. It’s like it’s curing and sealing the magic sigil so’s it stays permanent. I can’t believe – oh, honey–”

The silvery shimmer of Freddie's fairy dust dipped along the sigil lines to cleanse out the corruption, fast and sure, and Ephram was starting to feel his arousal reach its own simmering point ... when it turned, between one breath and the next, what had been a healing surge becoming more curdled. Rotted. The feeling that Ephram had come to recognize as the demon Anaxis beginning to push the tendrils of its own unholy power through, when it thought it had some latch into the waking world. "Freddie," Ephram gasped, "wait, hang on, Freddie it's starting to-"  
  
Ephram cut himself off with a half-shout that echoed hoarsely around the room and sat up straight, suddenly, clamping his hands onto Freddie’s arm to tug himself up. “Get back git back, goddammit–!” he hissed, eyes white and rolling. With a snarl, Ephram roughly kicked Freddie off the bed entirely before scrambling up against the headboard, curling into a tight fetal position. “Get the fuck out!” Ephram howled, but it was too late. The sigil flared hot on Freddie’s palm, along the golden and bloody lines from where he’d had it pressed against Ephram’s hip, and then it corroded into a curdled black and sank, sizzling, into the flesh of the fairy's hand.  
  
“Oh God,” Ephram whined, watching Freddie from one blue eye as he stayed huddled on the bed. “Baby, I’m so fuckin’ sorry, it…Anaxis just ... it _tagged_ you. It put a lil bit of its dirty energy in you. You ain’t possessed but it’s gonna….” Taking a breath, Ephram uncurled from where he was balled up, got off the bed and went over to Freddie, wrapping his arms around him. “I don’t rightly know how it’ll affect you. It might make you real fuckin’ depressed, or you might have rage fits, or it might hijack your glamour and change how you look. I’m so sorry.”  
  
“It ain’t your fault,” Ephram said, stroking Freddie’s hair, his face, his shoulders and arms, checking all over to see if the man was injured apart from the mark in his hand. “If there’s one thing I been trying to learn and remember when it comes to this goddamned demon, honey, it’s that shit happens that ain’t anybody’s fault.” He kissed Freddie’s panicking, panting mouth, hands firm on the fairy’s shoulders to hold him still. “The brand is fine. It didn’t get disturbed none, but Anaxis saw its chance and took it.”

Freddie tried to slow his breathing, to take comfort in Ephram’s words, but it was harder than it should have been. He’d never been one to panic - no matter what went wrong, Freddie had always been able to keep his head - but now, here, in this hotel room with the man that he loved, he felt like he might just shake apart.  
  
The important thing, he knew, was that Ephram was alright. The brand had held, contained the demon when it had counted, and Ephram remained Ephram - but Freddie couldn’t help his own selfish terror at being marked. He remembered Anaxis all too well - remembered his own idiotic flirtation with it, and how enticed it had been by him, to whatever end it had intended - and the idea of being at its mercy again was horrifying.  
  
Still bare-skinned but not caring about that, Ephram leaned back a little to let Freddie see the brand on his hip. It looked less angry and inflamed now, still lined with gold but not so much with blood. “You helped me,” Ephram said, quietly, pressing his thumb under Freddie’s chin. It felt like Freddie was shaking, and Ephram felt an intense wave of sadness for dragging his beautiful, elegant lover into this whole fucking demon mess. “You only wanted to stop me hurting,” he said, “and I wanted you to. But the demon don’t want it to stop. The longer I’m in pain, driven crazy and exhausted from it, the easier it is for Anaxis to claw its way to the fore.” Ephram pushed his face against Freddie’s, hard, like a semi-wild animal, like he was desperately marking Freddie with his scent. 

Freddie looked Ephram in the eye when his witch lifted his chin gently, still trembling as he listened, and only really calming - as much as he could - when Ephram pushed their faces together, exuding a sort of animal strength that Freddie found soothing. Ephram had been through far more than the fairy could even imagine, and Freddie needed to remember that. “I’m sorry, love,” he murmured, “I’m so, so sorry…” Though whether he meant he was sorry for allowing this to happen, or for everything Ephram had been forced to endure before it, even he wasn’t entirely sure. He just knew that right now, he was sorry for a great number of things.  
  
But taking Ephram’s pain away wasn’t one of them. Even through his own self-indulgent dread, he knew he’d do it again.

“Whenever Anaxis gets control,” he gulped, “it makes sure I’m in constant agony so I can’t concentrate enough to wrestle it back. It’s an ancient demon. It knows very well how to torture.”  
  
Ephram’s voice cracked on the last few words, and he shook his head angrily, hauling Freddie to his feet with such violent strength that Freddie’s feet momentarily left the floor. Snatching up Freddie’s hand, Ephram scowled at the mark – the tag, the lovebite, the scar – and pressed his tongue against it, growling as he tasted the horribly familiar dried fruit, curdled blood, and shit miasma that was Anaxis. For a moment his teeth scraped at the marred skin of Freddie’s palm, a desperate attempt to remove it, but Ephram caught himself and instead crammed a few of Freddie’s fingers into his mouth, sucking to relieve his own trembling rage.  
  
When he’d collected himself, Ephram eased Freddie’s fingers clear, rubbing them, and said fiercely, “I’m gonna git this fixed. I can’t let you bear this mark, Freddie, not you and all your sparkling and your love and all your fuckin’ gorgeous trust in me. I ain’t gonna let that be in vain and I ain’t gonna allow Anaxis to try and steal your shine, baby.”  
  
He didn’t expect Ephram to suddenly lift him to his feet though - Freddie wasn’t light by any means, and his witch managed to pick him up off the ground; a fact both comforting and startling - and when he did, when he pressed his mouth to Freddie’s palm, Freddie sucked in a shaky breath, just watching.  
  
Ephram bit at it, like he could somehow chew it off; like he could take it back into himself to spare Freddie, before realizing the futility of the effort, and sucked Freddie’s fingers into his mouth instead.  
  
Freddie watched, the love in the gesture nearly overwhelming, and when Ephram promised him that he’d fix it - pledged it with a ferocity that made Freddie love him that much more - the fairy just nodded, and said in a soft voice, “I know, sweetheart. But I’m still scared.”  
  
He offered a weak, watery smile that didn’t get anywhere near his worried eyes, as he squeezed Ephram’s hand with his spit-slick fingers. “I don’t think I’ve ever been this scared before in my life.”


End file.
